Pressed Flowers - Handcrafting Cards and Scrapbooks From Nature

Dried flowers have been used decoratively since prehistoric times. Early Japanese art used pressed flowers and leaves to create scenes of landscapes and gardens. Pressing flowers flat while drying them, however, seems to have become popular in Western culture during 1957 Topps baseball cards Renaissance (14th-17thcenturies). This was a time of rebirth for the arts and the sciences, and botany, the study of plants, became a popular hobby. Plant classifications were developed and soon even amateurs were pressing and cataloging the herbs and flowers in their gardens. The Victorians, of course, raised it to an artform.

Today, pressed flowers can be beautiful natural decorations for notecards, greeting cards, Transformers pages and Phantom of the Opera model crafts. Yes, you can buy a commercial flower press, if you think you are going to get into pressing in a big way. For the rest of us who want to press flowers occasionally, there is this simple "home-made" version method.

1. Pick several delicate flowers at the peak of their bloom, as well as some leaves.
2. Lay a piece of blotting paper on top of several sheets of newspaper on a flat surface. (For very succulent flowers, use more newspaper to absorb the moisture).
3. Place the flowers and leaves on the blotting paper without overlapping them.
4. Cover them with another sheet of blotting paper and several more sheets of newspaper.
5. Place heavy books, phone books, or a bowling ball on top.
6. Let sit for 3-4 weeks in a cool, dry place. Check the flowers every few days for the first week, and once a week after that. With tweezers, carefully peel the flowers from the blotting paper and reposition them to Johnny West them from adhering. Replace the newspapers at the same time.
7. After four weeks, the flowers should be stiff and dry and the paper should feel dry. If not, leave them for another week.

Now, your dried, pressed flowers are ready to embellish greeting and note cards, scrapbook pages, or other crafts. Use tweezers to handle and position them on your surface. When you like your arrangement, glue them down with white glue using a small paintbrush, being sure to glue all edges. As they dry, press them under a piece of wax paper and a heavy book for a day to prevent curling. You can protect your final work with a spray of clear polyurethane, a coat of decoupage medium, or laminating.

There is a quicker, easier method for making pressed flowers using your home microwave oven - if you are "pressed" for time!

Scott Henderson founded Vintage Image Craft (http://www.vintageimagecraft.com) for crafters and scrapbookers who love creating with vintage images. Visit for free ideas, techniques, instructions and vintage image downloads.

Phone Cards With No Fee and Its Advantages

Phone card shopping today is easy and convenient especially because you canpurchase themonline. As every shopper may know, buying any products online from a company you they have never heard of can be a rather tricky ordeal. But who can blame anyone for being a bit apprehensive on making a purchase online especially when it comes to buyingproducts on Shazam Internet.Phone cards after all are notorious for hidden fees and charges that quickly eat away the advertised minutes, often leavingthe customers scratching their heads and crying foul tothe Better Business Bureau. That's becausethese companies know a simple fact. They know that consumers always look for the lowest prices even if the price difference is less than a penny. And when consumers find acheap price they oftenwouldn't even take a minuteto read the fineprint.

I have used a lot ofdifferent phone cards from many different companies. I have noticedthepattern that most lowcall per Superman comics rate phone cardscarryextra fees andsurcharges whether they are hidden or not. I also noticed that cards withabsolutely no feeshavea slightly higher call per minute rate. But the astonishing fact is that when youroughly calculate the prices between low rate and high rate cards thatphone cards that cost slightlymore will save you money in the long run. This istrue because there are noextra fees to bump up the call per minute rate. As a resultyou are paying for the actualadvertised airtime. And that's the way it should be right?

Wellwe would all hope so. But the factphone card issuersmake moremoney oncheaper cards means thatcheapercards will be advertised more heavily. Every shopper has ingrained in their instinct that the lower the price fora product, the more moneytheysave. I mean why not? It seems absolutely logical. But most consumers jump in oncheap prices withoutwondering whythe productis so cheap in the first place. This is especially true when it comes topurchasing cheap phone cards.

Let's takeforexample a phone card with a 1call per minute with 500 airtime minutes with fees and compare it to a 2 call per minute with 500 airtimeminute card withabsolutely no fees. The 1 card's details states that there is a .69 weekly fee plus a 38% surcharge after the call is finished. Sounds absurd right? These are actual details of a phone card too. Now the 2 phone card is just a straightflat rate. So it doesn't take a math genius to figure out that the1 phone card will not give youthe full advertised 500 minuteairtime usage because thefees eat up your credits.The 2per minute phone cardwill provide you with the actual advertised value that you paid for.

So why dophone card companies issue cheap phone cards? The Friendship 7 is simple. They make more money byselling consumers cheapphone cards. The marketing and advertisingdepartments in these companies know what they aredoing. They knowconsumers jump 1985 Fleer baseball cards low costitems and products at an impulse. Now I amnot saying that thesecompanies arerunning a illegal business. Because all the information is fully disclosed. So it's up to the consumers to keep a vigilant eye.

Edwin M. Clark

For more information on companies that offer phone cards with no fees please visit: Phone Cards With No Fees - What You Need To Know.